Warriors of Light Origins
by Syndrake
Summary: Very little is known about the Warriors of Light. Except that they arrived at the gates of Castle Cornelia seeking an audience with the king. That is, until now. These are origin stories for the characters I made in Final Fantasy 1. With some cameo locati


When darkness veils the world, four warriors of light will come. After a long journey four young warriors will at last appear...

And in the hand each holds a crystal.

Gorzai held the torch close to the walls of his castle so that he could read the words in the orange light. He did not believe in prophecies and paid little attention to them. But as each day goes by, it was more and more difficult to ignore this particular one. With the increase of earthquakes and hurricanes and other disasters, could it be possible that this was a true prophecy? Gorzai let out a heavy sigh and placed the torch back in the wall. He turned and walked across the large empty room, his footsteps echoing eerily with every step.

Gorzai lived very much alone in the grand castle, filled with wonderful golden jewels and artifacts which he collected from his conquests. He wore a large blue sheet wrapped around him and a long hat was perched comfortably on his head. the largeness of his attire served to completely conceal his face from all his enemies, showing only his musty yellow eyes behind the darkness of his attire. He had many enemies.

Gorzai reached the first step of the spiral staircase that lead up to the treasure room where he collected only his finest prizes, and begun his ascent. he has killed many people and razed many buildings, and he had to admit, he was tired of it. Tired of Being feared, being shunned. When he traveled, anyone he met would run in terror. At first it was empowering. He struck fear into the hearts of the bravest men. Entire villages would feel his wrath, it was quite a rush to feel as powerful as he did. But now he can see that, although he sometimes did feel such a way even now, it is dwarfed by the feeling of loneliness he felt. Living alone in his castle, the magnificent, yet lifeless and inane objects surrounding him only masked his true feelings. But if this prophecy is real, if there are indeed four crystal bearers as the transcript suggest, could it give this lonely Black mage a second chance? A chance of redemption? The writing stated there were four crystals. When Gorzai reached the top of the stairs he saw what he was looking for. In amongst the mountains of gil and various objects of mythril, was a crystal glowing ever so slightly with a ruby red glow.

"And if it were the truth," he thought, "Is it possible I am one of them?"

Mirrin woke with a start as he heard a startled scream and a loud crash. He grabbed hold of the nearest branch of the tree he was resting in with one hand, and rubbed his eyes with the other, hoping to expel the grogginess he felt.

"Are you serious?" He asked no one in particular as he looked up at the orange sky contrasted by the black silhouettes of the treetops. "Dawn? Why do they always go adventuring at dawn?" Mirrin grasped the lime green cloth hanging from a nearby branch, pulling and twisting his long light-brown hair. He wrapped the cloth around his head and secured it with a knot at the back. Effortlessly, he swung from his sleeping spot down to the ground, grumbling as he did so. His feet landed softly onto the lush green forest floor, he pulled the dagger from his belt and walked casually towards the sound.

He arrived at the stone path leading to Luca and looked up at the net tied up on a small tree with a man struggling inside it, his leg protruding out of one of the holes. He seemed like a traveler but was incredibly poorly equipped for a road like this. Only a chain shirt and a short-sword. The man seemed to be in his twenties, about Mirrin's age, with a somewhat longish face and short, black hair. He writhed around in the overhanging net he was caught in that only served to make matters worse.

Mirrin smiled mischievously. "Didn't your mother teach you to look out for traps when out in the wilderness?" He gestured his hand around the forest. "Especially on this road!"

The traveler paused, and his eyes widened. "You- you're the Emerald Shadow!" He gasped.

"The very same." Mirrin muttered, inspecting his dagger, picking off small specs of dirt. "Although I wouldn't say my clothes have that shade of green, it's more of a lime green if you ask me. But I suppose the Lime Shadow hasn't got the same ring to it. I guess you know what happens next."

"Your going to kill me?"

Mirrin looked up from his knife, shocked. "What? Of course not! I'm a thief, not a bandit. Who told you that?"

The traveler shifted to free his arms and find a more comfortable position. "That's how the stories go. If you ever cross paths with the Emerald Shadow, you will die."

Upon hearing this, Mirrin brought his empty hand to his forehead. "Remind me to have a chat with those gentlemen at the tavern." He said as his arm flopped to his side. He composed himself and walked towards the tree the net was tied to.

"Unfortunately I am still here to rob you however so lets have a look."

He clambered up the tree and onto the net. The branch bent under Mirrin's weight. But Mirrin has done this for a long time and knew the branch was strong enough to hold.

The stranger tried to back away but ended up uncomfortably tangling in his own limbs again.

Mirrin poked and prodded the stranger with his dagger, while the stranger flinched and writhed causing himself to end up in all sorts of positions, trying to find something Anything worth taking.

"Hold still!" He ordered, still searching the distressed prisoner to no effect.

It has been a while since he caught a human and he was not walking away empty handed. He was running low on supplies and needed the gil to afford it. After about ten minutes or so he gave up and jumped down. The traveler made a startled cry as he was thrown up into the air and landed face first into the net.

"So you're going to let me go?" He tried to pronounce as his face pressed up against the net.

Mirrin's gaze turned to the outstretched leg sticking out. Or more specifically, the boot it was attached to. He moved to get a closer look.

He grasped the man's foot, turning and inspecting it at various angles. "This is a very nice boot sir, very fine leather, well made. Heck. This might just have to do."

The traveler tried to shout in protest but all that came out was muffled sounds. Mirrin yanked the boot from his foot and moved to cut a larger hole near the other leg. After a great amount of effort, he finally pulled off the other shoe. After inspecting them for a while he was satisfied that it would cost a fair amount of gil. He climbed back up the tree and started to undo the knot, all the while, the now barefoot traveler mumbling incomprehensible sounds and trying to grasp himself to pull himself up. Once again he shouted distress as he was suddenly pulled down to the ground. Landing heavily and painfully.

He was furious. How dare he try to take something that was so crucial to his survival as his boots. He wrestled the heavy net off him, frantically flailing his arms in every direction. His face was bright red, lines were imprinted on his face from the net. At last he threw the net off him and stood up. He had choice words to say to that scoundrel.

"Now look here you piece of-" He stopped and looked around. No one was around. He was alone. He look to where the thief put down his shoes. They were nowhere to be found. The bastard ran away, probably to sell his prize boots to some dirty fence. The traveler's muscles contracted and he scrunched his wrists tight. Then, all at once, he relaxed as he let out an annoyed sigh. He began his long journey again, flinching as the sharp rocks dug into his bare skin.

Mirrin exited from underneath the bridge where the black market resides. The boots were indeed of high quality and he did get a few gil from them, but it wasn't enough to buy the things he needed. He looked at the sky. The sun was setting over the horizon. It looked like he would have to do a few burglaries in town before it got too dark.

The blanket of night fell on the town, covering it's entirety in darkness, with only a few lanterns hanging over the front entrances of a few buildings. High up on one of the higher buildings, the infamous Emerald Shadow was perched on the building's windowsill, struggling with a locked window. He could hardly see anything, even with the small light of the lanterns scattered around the streets below him. He squinted his eyes, hoping it would help against the dark and shifted his weight to receive better balance on the narrow windowsill. After he was sure he wouldn't fall, he continued to work the lock.

"Why did I decide to rob a two story building?" He whispered to himself. "And why did I think entering the window a good idea?"

It was rare for him to rob buildings in the city. Usually he would hijack travelling caravans or wandering pilgrims and sometimes the odd camp or two. The only time he would steal in the city was on times of desperate need. This was one of those times

After an agonizing ten minutes he finally heard a click. Mirrin wasted no time and immediately opened the shutters and climbed in. He stretched out his aching muscles, letting out a sigh of relief. He looked around the room. The spacious bedroom was illuminated by a single candle on a desk on the far wall facing him. Next to it was a door that led out to the rest of the house. A large bed sat in the corner to the left of him under the other window. To the right of him was a sliding door carved into the wall, he guessed it was probably a wardrobe.

"Okay." He whispered again. "Lets see what we got."

He turned to his right and slid the door open to find he was right about the wardrobe. Rifling through the wardrobe, he only found some common clothes, although somewhat flashy, he didn't find anything of interest. what he did notice was that the clothes looked to be for a female. He smiled. A rich house and a woman go quite well together. It means there must be some expensive jewelry or perfume around that will fetch a good price.

He made his way to the desk and found exactly what he was looking for. On the desk, placed exactly in the light of the candle, was a silver necklace holding some sort of crystal at the base. He plucked it from it's resting place and dangled the crystal near his face for a closer look. It seemed to be glowing a slight, yellow aura. Mirrin grinned joyfully. The strange glow could mean it's magical! He's never held anything with magic before. More importantly, If the crystal necklace was magical, the amount of gil he could get from it could keep him fed for weeks. He swung it into the air and grabbed the it by the crystal. This made the painful window sill he's been sitting on all that time almost worth it.

Unfortunately of Mirrin, because he was so distracted by his great find, he failed to hear the clambering of footsteps that were getting closer, as well as the creaking of the door behind him as it opened. What he did hear, was a soft feminine voice call out to him that made him stop in his tracks.

"What are you doing? Don't move."

Mirrin slowly turned around to see a very beautiful woman who could not be any higher than eighteen. She wore a white robe, with red triangular patterns around the edges, that covered all her body from the shoulders to the floor, and sleeves which draped and touched the floor. Peering from an equally white hood was a pale face of features almost feline and a fringe of blonde hair peaking out from the top and sides. She did not appear afraid of him. Worried, yes, but not afraid.

Mirrin didn't know how to act. He was never caught in the act in the city before. He was too busy thinking about how much gil he could get from the necklace, he wasn't paying attention to his surroundings. He pulled out his knife and pointed it at her.

"S-Stay back, I'm warning you!" He tried to sound intimidating but he knew he was far from it.

His mind was racing. Through his internal panic, he noticed that the white robed girl was not looking at him. He followed her gaze to his hand. The hand that held the necklace. The girl looked away from his hand to his eyes, she looked very distressed.

"That crystal doesn't belong to you. Give it back." She ordered.

"It does now." Mirrin was struggling to force the words out. "I'm a thief, it's what I do."

"No! You don't understand what's at stake here. Please just give it to me!"

She was getting louder. Soon she'll bring the entire city watch to her door. He needed to get away, and quickly.

The next thing that happened was such a blur that he hardly noticed it was happening. Just as he turned away to jump out the window, the girl lunged at him, trying to knock him down and grab the necklace off him. Mirrin panicked and extended his arm to block her, only to have the girl land right into the dagger, embedding it into her throat. Mirrin's eyes were as wide as the girl's as she choked and spluttered, specks of blood hitting his face. He was sick to his stomach and felt like he was going to throw up. He pulled his dagger from her neck and she fell backwards onto the floor. Mirrin was horrified.

"No, no! I'm sorry, I'm so sorry!" He dropped the bloodied knife and leaped to the floor and grasped the girl's tender neck, trying to stop the bleeding. The girl raised a weak hand over his hand, which was still clinging onto the necklace, and squeezed as hard as she could. Through the weak coughs and wheezes she managed to utter a single sentence.

"Restore the crystals to grace..." She let go of his arm and it landed lifeless on the floor.

Mirrin was devastated. He couldn't move. Even as a large metal hand forcefully grabbed his arm and pulled him to his feet, all he could do was stare at the body of the white, now soaked with blood, robed girl lying with a gash across her throat.

He never killed an innocent person until that day.


End file.
